'IT IS THE SMALL DETAILS THAT MATTER'

Ahead Of Opener, Argentinian Talisman Lionel Messi Talks Of Calm, Being More Mature And Feeling Good

- Siddharth.Saxena @timesgroup.com

Doha: Maradona divided the world, Messi has been uniting it. What celestial burden on both of them.

On Monday, as the regimented world toiled away, the broken angel landed. It was a day before Argentina’s opening match here against Saudi Arabia, four days before his own second death anniversary. He flew from a flag, an ode that spanned a dozen feet by another dozen, bearing that famous image of the Mexico’86 trophy held high in the sun of Al Wakrah, the rows and cluster of one-room budget-housing south of the capital that’s become an unlikely global melting pot stirred by football. Accompanying him was ‘Kala Chashmaa…’, that wildly infectious, globally viral Hindi track, made famous by a Norwegian dance group.

In no time, the flag would become an unlikely shrine. To Maradona and all things, Argentinian. While he continues to divide opinion right down the middle with the Western world still viewing him as a cheating, drug-addled washout, in death, here he was making Indians, Colombians, Ecuadorians, Mexicans, the African volunteers, even a sulky Brazilian congregate in some strange, instinctive sway to both the fallen great’s unending appeal and the fresh new beat from an Indian number.

Maradona jerseys still continue to rival the numbers for Messi. It is a contest that has not died ever since Messi made his World Cup debut in 2006, and then the two were joined uniquely on the same stage, coming together as prodigy and coach in South Africa. What saga then does Qatar hold?